Our CEO Sergei Petrov is currently at the World Championships in Halmstad Sweden. When he returns. He will be answering your questions about himself and about TableTennis11. To ask a question for a chance to win a free prize, simply leave your question in the comments here on OOAK, in the comments of the video on youtube/facebook, or send an email to [email protected] with the subject line "Question for Sergei".

1. How much markup do you add to the cost of equipment that you pay for and how does the markup you charge differ across brands2. How much control do you have over the prices you charge, for example do butterfly tell you what you can and can't sell their products for, and if you ignored that price what would happen3. What percentage of your sales do customers say they do not receive and how big a problem is alleged non delivery of items for your business4. Why don't you list the date of manufacture of plastic 40+ balls you are selling5. Why don't you allow customers to search by sponge hardness, lots of people I know judge rubbers by hardness or softness, not speed and spin ratings.6. As there are only a few factories which make most of the rubbers, in your experience is there really much difference between brands made in the same factories7. I have unopened rubbers which I bought in bulk and which are now unfortunately no longer ittf authorised. How much notice do manufacturers give you that they are no longer going to pay for a rubber to be authorised so you can sell your stock and what happens to the unauthorised stock you can't sell.8. What stock ratio do you work on to balance customer demand and fulfilling orders with storage space and tying up capital in stock 9. Which manufacturers are best to do business with 10. If you could ask a manufacturer one question, what would it be and why11. What's the biggest problem you have with customers 12. What's the biggest problem you have with manufacturers13. What should you choose first, a blade and then rubbers or rubbers and then the blade

Have you asked the same of another online table tennis shop owner not a million miles away from here?

I consider haggisv a good friend. I value his input, ideas and experiences when I film and test products. He probably knows more about my future plans than most and I respect his integrity and need to earn a living. As such we generally don't chat about commercial details or business. I guess it's a trait of table tennis players. In my experience table tennis players seldom discuss anything other than table tennis and their performance, both good and bad. In short no I haven't.

I did ask Bill Thornton once though, UK retailer. He said there is very little markup in selling equipment and that each seller in the UK specialises in a couple of brands. If you order from him a brand he is not the UK distributor in he will keep a small amount of stock of it and if that is exceeded, he will contact the other authorised shop and get it from them. They all share their product range this way whilst keeping their brand identity. What I find strange in today's alleged world of "choice" is how little freedom sellers seem to have. Butterfly in particular appear to operate a "vigorous" approach to the pricing of their products and who can sell where. That to me seems like possible commercial "blackmail" and the total opposite of free and fair competition. Do as we say or else we won't sell to you, is not free market competition. I'd like to know more in particular about this aspect of being a table tennis seller and whether my perception is right or wrong. How can there be such small variation in the price of the same product across so many sellers. Only discounts tend to be on obsolete stock or bulk purchase. Retailers tend to offer free postage on higher value orders rather than undercut the price of equipment offered by other sellers. It seems to be a cozy yet fragile "understanding".

The biggest factor in where I buy from is reliability, then the currency exchange rate. Only when the pound is strong do I look abroad. It's currency variations which act as the "price" reduction, not the actual prices charged by sellers as they are so static and similar.

The ittf say they make no money from authorising equipment as they have to cover the cost of independent testing, retailers say they make little money on sales, so who does make the money and where?

As for whether or not tabletennis11's CEO will answer any of my questions, who knows. But if he invited the questions he should be prepared to answer them or why invite them in the first place?

Do you think virtual reality hardware and software will come close to table tennis, or at least will it be close enough to feel the different materials used? Would you be interested in having some kind of netflix like subscription where players pay an x amount to play around with all kinds of materials against some sort of AI?

Most people I know buy from tabletennis11 and so does my club, so congratulations on a job well done.

You do a great job carrying a variety of brands. We understand Butterfly's nefarious tactics so you can't sell their products. Any chance of working with Giant Dragon? They desperately need a good distributor. Also, there's a new brand called Metal TT. Any chance of picking up their products?

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